The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

Apple announces new iPhone 4: the Steve Jobs keynote

June 7, 2010 | 10:17
am

Steve Jobs took the stage at Apple Inc.'s Worldwide Developers Conference to announce new features and products from the company.

The chief executive began by giving an update on the iPad. The tablet computing device sold 2 million units in the first two months since its debut and has 8,500 apps on Apple's online store. So far, 35 million apps have been downloaded, he said, which breaks down to 17 apps per iPad.

In an update on the iPad's built-in book software, Jobs said the iBookstore platform had sold more than 5 million books in the first 65 days -- or about 2.5 books per iPad.

Further, Jobs said that for five of the six largest publishers, about 22% of e-book purchases are being sold through the iPad's bookstore.

In an addition to the iBook reading app's functionality, the app will allow users to do inline note-taking.

10:21 a.m. - Netflix

Jobs also invited Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to the stage to announce a new, free Netflix application for the iPhone. Hastings said the Netflix app for iPad has been among the most popular apps in Apple's App Store, and No. 1 in the entertainment category.

Marc Pincus, the CEO of Zynga, came to the stage to announce an iPad version of Farmville, which is played by 35 million people every day, largely on Facebook.

10:27 a.m. - App downloads

Jobs said the company crossed 5 billion downloads. He followed that comment with what he called his "favorite stat of the whole show," which is that Apple has paid out $1 billion to its app developers. "We're thrilled about it," he said.

10:30 a.m. - iPhone 4

Jobs announces the iPhone 4. "Stop me if you've already seen this," he said, referring to the leak of the phone by Gizmodo. "But believe me, you ain't seen it.

"It’s one of the most beautiful designs you’ve ever seen. It's beyond a doubt the most precise things and one of the most beautiful things we've ever made."

Jobs shows photos of the phone, familiar from the leak. He calls it the "thinnest smart phone on the planet," noting that the iPhone 4 is 24% thinner than its predecessor.

He then begins talking about...

...the phone's new "retina display," which boasts a resolution four times higher than that of previous versions. Its 3.5-inch display features 960 x 640 pixels -- 78% of the pixels of the much larger iPad, he says. He calls it "the best window on the planet."

10:42 a.m. - Problem!

Jobs runs into a major problem when a display of the new phone's resolution fails because of a poor Internet connection. He's unable to load the New York Times' Web page -- an odd, unscripted blooper that's rare for Apple.

"Boy, I'm sorry guys, I don't know what's going on," Jobs said.

"Scott, you got any suggestions?" he says, seeking help from Scott Forstall, Apple's vice president of iPhone software.

"Verizon!" someone yells. The audience laughs.

10:50 a.m. - Gyroscope

The iPhone 4 will have a built-in Gyroscope, a much more precise motion sensor that can sense the phone's position around three difference axes. It can sense pitch, roll, and yaw -- with the accelerometer, that means the new phone can sense six different axes of motion.

Jobs plays a game of Jenga as the audience watches. As he rotates around himself (as in, turning in a circle), the Jenga stack rotates. He carefully removes a piece at a time. After each removal, he turns a few steps himself, looking for a new piece to remove.

He gets about eight or nine pieces out before the stack collapses.

"These phones are getting more and more intelligent about the world around them," he said.

10:55 a.m. - iPhone 4 camera and video

Jobs shows off the new iPhone's 5-megapixel camera, to oohs and aahs from the audience. The camera has an LED flash. It can record high-definition video, with a "tap to focus" effect.

"You can record video and edit it right on the phone, and then with a few taps, send it to MobileMe or send it to YouTube."

Apple then shows a demo of a new built-in iMovie app that allows for rather sophisticated video editing on the phone. The very impressive demo is a short touristy movie that was recorded, edited and rendered right on the phone. The resolution is stellar.

iMovie will cost $4.99.

11:00 a.m. - Update on the Internet connection problem

Jobs says everyone was running around backstage to figure out the Internet problem.

"We figured out there are 570 Wi-Fi base stations operating in this room. We have two choices -- turn off all the stuff and we see the demos, or I don't show you the demos. Would you like to see the demos?"

Some people reluctantly turn off their computers. Pesky media people don't.

11:05 a.m. - iPhone's new operating system: iOS4

Jobs announces a new version of the iPhone's operating system, which he largely announced a few months ago. It's been renamed iOS4 and he shows of the new metallic logo. The OS will have 100 new features.

Holding his breath, Jobs tries to test out another Internet application.

"Now I'm going to go to a Web page to see if we actually did turn off our devices," he says. The page loads, and everyone applauds.

11:10 a.m. - New features of the new OS

Jobs runs through a bunch of the features that Apple already announced in April. For a rundown, click here.

Jobs announces that the iPhone will now offer Microsoft Corp.'s Bing as a search engine. Google's search engine will remain the default, but users will now be able to choose Bing as well as Yahoo, which has been an option for some time.

"Microsoft's done a very nice job on this," he said.

11:15 a.m. - 100 million iOS devices sold

Jobs announces that 100 million iOS devices have been sold. "No one else even comes close," he said. "There is definitely a market for your apps."

11:18 a.m. - iBooks now available on iPhone

iPhone 4 will include the iBooks application, which allows users to download and read books from the iBookstore.

Perhaps most interesting, the app will sync across multiple Apple devices -- meaning you can buy a book once on your iPad and have it wirelessly sync/download to your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The iBooks app will automatically sync notes, bookmarks and your "place" (where you left off in the book) across all your Apple devices.

Jobs said the three Apple stores -- iTunes, App Store and iBookStore -- have 125 million credit card accounts combined. There have also been 16 billion downloads of the different media types, he said.

"We believe this is the most of any store on the Web."

11:23 a.m. - iAd platform

Jobs goes to Apple's new iAd advertising platform.

"Why are we doing iAd?" he said "To help our developers earn money to help them produce free and low-cost apps for users."

He listed a number of advertisers who will be early entrants into the iAd platform, designing advertisements for the iAd platform:

Jobs said advertisers had committed $60 million dollars for the second half of 2010, and that at only eight weeks old, Apple has earned a decent chunk of the U.S. mobile advertising market.

11:31 a.m. - One more thing: Video telephony: FaceTime

Jobs turns all the lights on the stage for the finale.

Jobs calls colleague Jony Ive with his iPhone 4 and ... an image of Ive pops up on the big screen -- Jobs is conducting a live video phone call. But there's still Wi-Fi problems, so the call is a little jerky.

"The idea of communicating this way, it's an old idea, but we've had to wait an awfully long time for it to become real, haven't we?"

But now video chatting is real -- Apple's name for it is FaceTime.

But there are caveats -- it only works with Wi-Fi -- and, of course, only with iPhone 4 models because they have the video camera.

"We need to work with the wireless providers," he said, before FaceTime will work on the cellular network. Though they expect to ship tens of millions of FaceTime capable devices, they'll only work with Wi-Fi for the rest of 2010.

11:41 a.m. - New pricing

Phones go on sale June 24 and will be available in black or white. The phone will cost $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB version.

All iPhone owners will be able to get the new phones for the same prices as new customers -- if they renew their AT&T contracts by the end of 2010.

Owners of recent older models will be able to download the new operating system. Upgrades for 3GS and 3G will be available in June -- but 3G doesn't get multitasking.

11:51 a.m. - A wrap-up

Jobs wraps up by showing an Apple standby, the image of a street sign that shows the intersection of "Technology" and "Liberal Arts" streets.

"We're not just a tech company, even though we invent some of the highest technology products in the world," he said. "It's the marriage of that plus the humanities and the liberal arts that distinguishes Apple."

Jobs then recognizes multiple design, software and hardware teams, to applause from the audience.

"I'm really proud of all you guys, awesome job," he said. To the audience: "Thanks for coming -- this is our new baby, I hope you love it as much as we do."